Chapter 26.—Of the Peace Which is
Enjoyed by the People that are Alienated from God, and the Use Made
of It by the People of God in the Time of Its
Pilgrimage.

Wherefore, as the life of the flesh
is the soul, so the blessed life of man is God, of whom the sacred
writings of the Hebrews say, “Blessed is the people whose God is
the Lord.”13031303Ps. cxliv. 15.
Miserable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God.
Yet even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be
lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it,
because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it is our
interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in this life; for as
long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the peace of
Babylon. For from Babylon the people of God is so freed that it
meanwhile sojourns in its company. And therefore the apostle also
admonished the Church to pray for kings and those in authority,
assigning as the reason, “that we may live a quiet and tranquil
life in all godliness and love.”130413041 Tim. ii. 2; var.
reading, “purity.” And the prophet Jeremiah, when
predicting the captivity that was to befall the ancient people of
God, and giving them the divine command to go obediently to
Babylonia, and thus serve their God, counselled them also to pray
for Babylonia, saying, “In the peace thereof shall ye have
peace,”13051305Jer. xxix. 7.—the
temporal peace which the good and the wicked together
enjoy.